2016 - Time to take stock!

I'm not one for making resolutions per se, but I do like to take stock of things in life and there's no better time to do it than New Year's Day.  Fresh year, fresh start.

2015 was an epic year in many ways.  What our family accomplished on the homefront with downsizing astounds me.  But here we are celebrating the arrival of a new year and with it new adventures, challenges and hopefully growth.

My quilting was interrupted significantly but not totally forgotten.  Today I'm pausing to take stock of my projects so I can move forward in 2016 with some quilting goals.  This blog is a great way of putting it thoughts on paper even if it is e-paper and also a good way of keeping myself accountable and I don't have to worry about 'where the heck did I put that list?'.  I'm sure you see my logic.

So let's check out that closet and see what we can find in those bins.  Today I will cover hand quilting projects and UFOs.  Tomorrow will be 2015 accomplishments and PIGS (projects in grocery sacks).  Later will be my someday wish list and my own designs I want to make a reality.  I could easily overload this post with the whole shebang but that would just be too much!

So here's the first instalment:

Ongoing hand quilting projects

 1.  Le Passion Hexagon quilt  - no deadline project

This is the goal:

2.  Grand Illusion - 2014 Quiltville winter mystery quilt which is being hand quilted.  There is no deadline for this project either.  This is just for the pleasure!

3.  2011 Superbowl Mystery Quilt - kind of on the back burner.  There is no deadline for this one. I'm hand quilting free form baptist fans on this.

UFOs

1.  Peacock quilt which will eventually be my daughter's wedding quilt.  I will also be working on one for my son.  There are no boyfriends or girlfriends currently but I heard a young woman tell me that her grandmother had made each of her grandchildren wedding quilts for that special day whether or not she was still around.  I am in the process of piecing the components to make these blocks.  I have one finished block and a bunch of 'units' ready to be pieced into blocks:

Scrap Jar Quilt Pattern by A Little Bit Biased

2.  Disappearing Fat Quarters - This was a mystery quilt class put on my guild a few years ago.  I have finished a winter version of this quilt and still have to finish the fall version.  I just have to add a pieced border and then the quilt top is done.  I plan on using string blocks as the final border as per my EQ7 drawing.

current status

winter version - completed

border treatment to finish my quilt

3.  Amish Block Party - this is an original pattern that I am almost ready to publish.  I've done it in two colour ways.  My second green and purple one was to test my pattern instructions after have them tested by a friend. As soon as I get the borders on and the back pieced it will be sent for long arm quilting.  This will be a store sample.  Very excited!

The original colourway

Second colourway; still on design wall awaiting purple borders

4.  Scrappy Log Cabin/Hearts - needs to pieced into a quilt top.  I put it away temporarily and need to confirm that I have enough blocks for a quilt top.  I will add a border and quilt it myself by machine.

5.  Lonestar Around the World - I saw a picture of an Amish quilt and have been searching for a pattern unsuccessfully so I decided to just make my own pattern.  I've been working at it in EQ7.  Diamonds done but that's all so far.  The medallion is will be surrounded by Trip Around the World blocks.

6.  One Block Wonder - almost finished; quilted and just needs binding.  This one will hang in the Victoria Quilters' Guild show in 2016.

7.  Dayspring Sampler - No picture but this is an older UFO that is a collection of blocks from Quilters' Cache website that were part of a block swap.

8.  Sweatshirt Jacket - I'm doing a batik New York Beauty block on the back and then strips to cover the base of the sweatshirt before sewing it back together.  There is no pattern.  I saw someone wearing one and am basically reverse engineering it.

9.  Bowdacious - This is a Quiltville pattern which I'm doing as a Leaders and Enders Project.

10.  Rosebud Lane BOM - A forgotten project that deserves to be finished...someday.

11.  Strips & Curves - a workshop quilt I started with my guild that deserves to be finished someday too.

12.  Irish Chain - This memorial quilt to my friend Janet Wicks needs some love.  I hand quilted the center feathers and then did some machine quilting on the rest but I'm currently picking out the borders that I did by machine in haste and don't like.  Still trying to figure out what to do to the border to make this quilt shine.  I purchased this UFO from Janet's estate sale.

13.  Pink & Grey baby quilt - I started this at my retreat in November and it is sandwiched and ready to quilt.  It will be donated to the Victoria Quilters' Guild for the charity program.

14.  Florabunda - Another Quiltville quilt that is languishing in the back on my closet.  Some day it will get some attention.  Maybe in 2016!

 15.  Denim quilt - Another someday project.  Still cutting up jeans.

16.  Kaffe Fassett fabric bag - Need to add some body to the bag part then add the handle.

17.  Blooming Nine Patch - This will be soon be back on the design wall for a finish.  All the blocks except the setting triangles have been pieced.  I have a nice big design wall up in my hallway now so as soon as my Amish Block Party quilt is off the design wall I will begin to get this one finished.  I am excited about this one.  It will be a king sized quilt for our bed.

Phew!  That's enough for one day.  I'm already feeling overwhelmed and I haven't got to the PIGS or wish list yet!  More tomorrow.

Until then,

Mavis

Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas from Brentwood Bay, BC on beautiful Vancouver Island.  It's a sunshiney Christmas day rather than a white one but no complaints from me.

Our humble little Christmas tree.

I am thankful to have had Christmas week off from work which has meant getting some last minute gifts made and lots of yummy eats for our extended family get together last night.  It's our Christmas Eve tradition to gather with my sister and her family and we switch up the food every year to keep it interesting.  Last night we had a buffet of appetizers.  I've been trolling Pinterest plus enjoying all the suggestions posted to Facebook and here are a few of our choices:

Mozza  stuffed meatballs

Proscuitto wrapped asparagus

Blackberry Brie Bites

Chorizo sausage bites with arugula pesto

Yam Tartin on the left, pulled pork crostinis, devilled eggs, chunky avocado dip

Yummy treats..now just waiting for the family to arrive

My kitchen is one of my happy places and although it was almost a solid three days of preparing all these yummy treats, it was a fun three days.  The family appreciated the effort and the selection of tasty morsels. And yes there are leftovers.  For the first time ever, we decided to delay Christmas turkey dinner until Boxing Day.  We are all still full from Christmas Eve!

My other happy place is of course my sewing room.  I didn't make a lot of gifts this year but I was anxious to try out my new Accuquilt Orange Peel die.  I decided some tablerunners might be nice so I gathered some Christmas fabrics from my stash and purchased a few more and then put these together.  There was no pattern but I may do a tutorial at a later date.

This one was made with assorted Christmas fabrics and gifted to a friend at work.

Simple stitch in the ditch quilting plus some arcs quilted in the border.

For my dear daughter

 I did some outline quilting of the orange peel shapes, stitched in the ditch for the borders and then did some stippling all over so that the orange peels pop.  This fabric matches the decor in her apartment.  She loves it and that makes her momma very happy.

 I also made a pair of Snappy Slippers for a dear friend who is also a quilter.  It was my first attempt at this pattern and in hindsight I should have made a test pair first before the Christmas crunch.  There was some unpicking and frustration with the pattern but I got them done...and then forgot to photograph them.  Here is a picture of them in progress.  They look like canoes before you sew them together:

And here is the pattern:

I am actually going to get some sewing time today (unheard of on Christmas Day), but my daughter bought tickets to the new Star Wars movies for herself, her Dad and brother (not my thing) so they've headed to the theatre to enjoy that.  Me and the doggies are content to stay at home in the peace and quiet and now that all the dishes are done, I will see what kind of mischief I can get into in my sewing room.

Sophie

Cooper

It's a wonderful life!  Blessings to you and yours on this Christmas Day 2015.

Until next time,

Mavis

Live from Bowser, BC

This blog post is brought to you live from beautiful Bowser, BC where four of us quilters are hunkered down for our second quilt retreat from a beautiful beachfront retreat.

We have a new member this year and are down three from the previous retreat two years ago. So that brings us to four. 

Pam - second timer

Mae - first timer

Linda - another second timer

Me - another second timer

I had a few of goals at this year's retreat:  1). I wanted to make my son a warm winter quilt for Christmas. I purchased three jelly rolls for this in sandy coloured earth tones to match his new room, 2) I have a set of 7 fat quarters that I wanted to use for a baby quilt in a quick and easy pattern, and 3) I wanted  to finish the blocks for my blooming nine patch quilt which I started a few weeks ago at a guild workshop.  I always bring way more than a weekend's worth of projects because I never know what I will be inspired to work on. 

Here's my blooming nine patch where I left off after  the guild workshop. I have a bunch of nine patches to construct.  Better get busy!!

So let's see what we can accomplish this weekend! 

Our dining room workspace. 

The view from my sewing table day 1.  Not too shabby. 

My son's Christmas quilt minus borders. 

Sewing the border on.  

All done now!  Ready for sandwiching and quilting. I will use Hobbs wool batting and flannel backing to achieve the warmth required.

Next up is the baby quilt project. .

All done and ready for quilting.  I used bricks and half bricks in a step layout with a simple white inner border and a coordinating outside border. We found the border fabric and an adorable grey flannel polka dot fabric at Sweet Pea Quilting in Parksville. The fat quarter pack came from Satin Moon Quilted Garden in Victoria.

Linda's jewel tones stepping stones quilt. Beautiful!  Gotta love those jelly rolls!

Mae's one block wonder. I took Mae's class a few years back for my own OBW. This one is going to be gorgeous. 

Linda busy at work on her borders. 

Now that my other two projects are done, I'm going to try and finish my nine patches for my blooming nine patch which will be king sized. 

We are now nearing the end of day 3 and here are a few more random pictures from our retreat time. 

Pam and I headed outside during the storm to get some fresh air, kick a few rocks in the beach and try and photograph my quilt tops. 

Kinda futile but memorable in its own way. 

Random beach art. 

The sea started out calm and the sky lovely as seen in my first picture out the window. Today the sea is more fierce and the sky stormy but we are happily inside sewing away with the smell of ham and veggie soup simmering away on the stove with the promise of comfort food for dinner. 

We head home tomorrow so let's see what we can accomplish for the remainder of our time here. 

Until next year, it's been a slice girls!!

Mavis

Thanksgiving Weekend and some finishes

It's our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and this quilter has a lot to be thankful for.  God, Family and Friends first come to mind.  And of course, my new home, new neighbourhood, my job, freedom (I think of this because our federal election is coming up next week and I'm thankful that we live in a free and democratic country!!).  And I'm also thankful that I have a quilting hobby that keeps me calm and happy.

This weekend I decided that before the big family dinner on Monday night, I needed to finish some quilt projects that are stalled at the border or binding stage.

I started first with cutting on my Accuquilt GO all the strips for the borders for all quilts.  Then on to some finishes.  First across the finish line is the rail fence scrappy quilt that needed borders.

This will be a charity quilt and I will undoubtedly just gift it as is as there are a couple of long arm quilters who will take tops and finish them before gifting them.

This one used a lot of two inch strips, not that you'd know by the number of strips remaining in my stash!!

Next up, I added some binding to three quilts which are ready for TV time/stitching time.

And finally, I got the three borders sewn on to my One Block Wonder.  The bias edges made this tricky but I'm hoping that my 'measure through the middle' corrected some of the warble on these borders.

"Cooper approved".  He particularly likes the hexie in the bottom right corner.  ;)

I'm so happy to have this quilt top done.  I now need to find some backing fabric and then I will be sending it out for quilting.  I've decided to add the original fabric (before hexies transformed it) to the hanging sleeve.  I have decided that this one will be going in our quilt show next year. 

Not bad for a sewing Saturday hey?

It's now time to clean up the diningroom where I have spread out for these larger projects so that the family can enjoy our first thanksgiving dinner in the new house.

Until next time,

Mavis